#occupationoftheday — Public Fediverse posts

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…BODY ERECTOR:

"a carpenter who fits together wooden parts of aeroplane body, or fuselage, and secures them by glueing and riveting, or with screws; also fits wires and stays."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Female carpentry unit making fuselage components, c.1915-20 c/o Library of Congress

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…COALHEUCHAR:

Scots term for a man who worked at a coal-heuch or coal-pit, extracting coal from a bank or coal-face.

📷 Coal miners underground, 19thC c/o Wellcome Collection #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…UNIVERSITY CONSTABLE:

"patrols streets in neighbourhood of university; arrests students for specified misdemeanours; works under direction of Proctor, to whom all evidence is submitted."

Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 'The Brawling Student' (1725) c/o Wikimedia Commons #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…MEWS MANAGER:

"in charge of livery stables, is responsible to cab proprietor/livery stable keeper for control of staff, safe custody of horses & safe storage of fodder & litter used in stables; supervises grooms & ensures that horses are regularly fed and exercised...examines sick horses, either gives medicine himself or calls in vet..."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Livery stables c/o Wikimedia Commons #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…MESS-ROOM MAID:

"lays table, serves food, clears away; scrubs floor of staff messroom, cleans brasses and paint; cleans cutlery and sometimes washes dishes."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 'The Gourmand' by Rowlandson, c/o Wikimedia Commons #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…COIL WINDER or ARMATURE BANDER:

"secures [electronic] coils in position by binding with tape or string, and binds structure of finished armature with wire, or otherwise, to give mechanical strength; also secures band thus produced by soldering."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Wire-soldering worker (1942), c/o Library of Congress #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...BLOCKING DRESSER or QUARRY MASON:

"with hammer and chisels prepares stone to leave quarry, except such kinds as require dressing; works chiefly on beams or girder blocks, coping, quoins, and other kinds of stone used in engineering constructional work."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Die Steineklopfer (1849) by Gustave Courbet, c/o Wikimedia Commons #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…OIL REFINERY FLOOR MAN:

"sweeps up and keeps clean floors of oil refinery."

Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Oil refinery (1939) c/o NYPL #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…GARMENT INSPECTOR:

"examines and supervises work during process and on completion; returns defective work for correction; often books out work to operatives and does other clerical work, e.g. control of wages sheets; in some trades, may also finish garments"

Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Garment factory, c.1935-1942 c/o NYPL #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…BARNMAN:

An agricultural worker who threshed the crop; alternative name for a "thresher".

Dict. Scots Lang. (2005)
📷 Barnmen or threshers, Indiana (1936) c/o NYPL #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…JENNY-MUCK:

Scots term for a working woman, in particular a female farm worker.

Scottish National Dictionary (1960)
📷 Scots advert for the Women's Land Army, c.1940 c/o Wikimedia Commons #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…KLONDYKER:

Worker engaged in "exporting fresh herring packed in salt and ice by fast steamer; (in 20thC) to export fresh fish, mainly mackerel, to the Continent, direct to factory ships for processing on board."

Dict. Scots Lang. (2005)
📷 Mackerel fishing (1943) c/o Library of Congress #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…JACKER-UP (lead pencil making):

"places a number of glued pencils together in a clamp, and screws down clamp to make glueing secure; removes pencils when clamping is complete."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Faber pencil factory, 1917-18 c/o Flickr #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…SPRAT PICKLER or HERRING PICKLER:

'prepares the pickle, i.e. sugar, spice, hay leaves, etc., in barrels for sprats and herrings, working from own recipe; often travels round coast to follow "catch." '

Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Herring women and picklers, 1905 c/o Library of Congress #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…HALFLANG or HAFLANG:

"A half-grown lad, specifically one engaged in farm work."

Dict. Scots Lang. (2005)
📷 Farmer's boy sowing seed, c/o Wellcome Collection #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…LORIMER:

"One who makes the metal parts of a horse's bridle and harness, a worker in small iron-work."

Dict. Scots Lang. (2005)
📷 Harness makers' guide (1907) c/o @internetarchive #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…RUNKEEPER:

"supervises paddlers, shovellers and other labourers and superintends processes by which grain is steeped in water, ground and passed through long "runs" where starch is deposited."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Labourers transferring grain into store, 1942 c/o NYPL #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…LEADING PORTER (railways):

"a working foreman in charge of small staff of porters where no station foreman is employed; is responsible to station master for carrying-out of jobs done by staff under him."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Railway porter, c.1914-18 c/o Library of Congress #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...COMPTROLLER (dock):

"controls financial side of dock authority's business; is responsible for collection of dues by collector, payment of wages and dock accounts; supervises banking arrangements and signs cheques on behalf of dock authority or delegates such work to a responsible official"

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 South Shields (1962) c/o Tyne and Wear Archives #history

Congrats to Auriette Lindsey of Florida, USA, the winner of last month's #OccupationOfTheDay Quiz! A copy of Oskar Jensen's 'Vagabonds' is already on its way to her.

Thanks to all who entered, and never stop being curious about historical occupations wherever you find them! #history #competition

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…HEMMER:

"hems, or turns raw edge of material under and sews down edge of fold or hem, by hand or machine; sometimes specifically designated, e.g., carpet hemmer, hand hemmer, hemming machinist"

Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Machinists in a woollen factory, 1923 c/o Library of Congress #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…COMPOSITOR:

"sets up type from which printing is to be done; picks out letters from compartments or "cases"...arranges them in a grooved piece of wood, called a "stick"; transfers type to "galley," or long tray from which first proof is pulled by pressman; corrects type after proof has been checked by reader"

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927) #history
📷 Compositor (1917) c/o Library of Congress

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is...SCUTCHER:

"minds a scutching machine, which cleans cotton and delivers it in form of laps, i.e. smooth rolls resembling wadding...takes off lap roller when full and starts fresh one; clears away obstructions in machine."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Cotton Scutcher, 1945 #history #LabourHistory

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…EMBOSSER TO THE BLIND or BRAILLE WRITER:

A Braille-producing operative who either fed an embossing machine with sheets to produce Braille relief dots, or used hand tools to produce a woven Braille pad.

📷 Tools for making a woven Braille pad, c/o Wellcome Collection #history #LabourHistory #AccessibilityMatters

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…DRYSALTER:

"a wholesale dealer in crude dry chemicals, dyes, resins, shellacs; OR a retail shopkeeper who sells crude dry chemicals, paint ingredients & colours, and often ironmongery goods too."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Perthshire Advertiser, 1913 c/o FindMyPast #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…LAYER-ON OF GOLD:

"cuts up very thin sheets of gold leaf and lays them, by means of slightly greasy pad of hair or cotton wool, on that part of leather/cloth cover of book on which design is to be embossed."

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Bookbinding workshop, 1850s c/o NYPL #history

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…BONE CLEANSER (gluemaking):

"boils bones, after they have been scraped by bone scraper in water to remove last traces of fat; skims off fat from top of liquor."

Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Wigan Advertiser, 1882 c/o Findmypast #history

And if you'd like a practical demo of the quarrying process, here's a British Pathe film (no audio) showing a slate quarry and various quarrymen at work #OccupationOfTheDay #history

https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/207567/

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…QUARRYMAN:

"gets material from pit or quarry face by pick and shovel, or by blasting; if explosive is used, bores hole, tamps down charge and, after explosion, brings down loosened material with picks; sometimes also loads into trucks."

Dict of Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Quarrymen, 18thC c/o Wellcome Collection

Today's #OccupationOfTheDay is…OIL HAWKER:

a street-seller "who goes round streets with horse and cart carrying a drum of oil from which oil is sold in small quantities." Some earlier oil hawkers used a lined bag to carry their oil around, from which it could be decanted at point of sale.

Dict Occup'l Terms (1927)
📷 Madrid oil hawker, 1809 c/o British Library #history